The Jays' pitching ace has veered between dominating and porous on the mound before and after his emergency appendectomy on May 11.

In his previous outing, he gave up eight runs in just over three innings to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Yesterday, Halladay looked equally vulnerable at the outset, allowing five consecutive batters to reach base in the first inning while giving up two runs. But from the second on, Halladay settled into an overpowering groove.

"I feel like I did a better job of being able to slow the game down," Halladay said. "A lot of the time you get caught up in your mechanics, in what you're doing wrong."

Halladay helped his own cause with two hits off Dodgers starter Jason Schmidt, including an RBI single.

Two home runs by Troy Glaus and multi-hit efforts by Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and John McDonald propelled the Jays to an 11-5 victory. Sixteen hits matched a season high for Toronto.

After Friday's disheartening extra-inning loss, Toronto departed L.A. having taken two of three from the Dodgers. Tonight, they will begin a three-game series in San Francisco with the last-place team in the NL West, the Giants.

Halladay wanted to talk about his pitching, but everyone else was marvelling at his facility with the bat.

"After he got his second hit, I said, `I wanna learn to hit like Roy,'" catcher Sal Fasano said with a laugh.

When struggling Dodgers reliever Mark Hendrickson managed to strike out Halladay in the fifth, the crowd cheered loudly and sarcastically.

"Lucky," is how Halladay summed up his day at the plate. He hadn't even bothered to attend batting practice. He did credit his time on the unfamiliar side of the plate with helping him to settle after his shaky first inning.

After two days of struggling against Dodgers pitching, the Jays' offence found its `On' switch from the outset yesterday.

Rios and Matt Stairs doubled in the first. Wells followed with a single. By inning's end, Toronto had tagged two early runs on Schmidt.

Handed the lead, Halladay quickly returned in kind. He was fortunate to escape the first inning having allowed only the two runs.

"I think he saw they were being aggressive and he made a little adjustment," Fasano said.

Those adjustments were both mental (slowing his pace and thus his mind) and physical (relying more heavily on his curveball). In one stretch, he retired 11 consecutive batters.

While Halladay settled, the Jays continued to pile on the shaky Schmidt. They scored in five of the first six innings, including a four-run outburst in the fifth. Glaus was outstanding, hitting solo homers to lead off the fifth and sixth.

Also, playing in his 500th career game, shortstop McDonald displayed all of his skills. A 3-for-4 day at the plate matched his season high.

His smart baserunning – hastily rounding second on a groundout before scampering on to set the plate for Halladay's RBI.

In between, there was the usual display of marvellous fielding, including a double play on a wicked Tony Abreu grounder that ended the Dodgers' fifth.

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